I have not been to the forums in quite a while do to exam week and work. let me give you some background information on a hunt.


It is early october, maybe 55 degrees outside and im in a white oak tree 20' off the ground. Ive done my homework know where these buck travel and what time. Right on schedule 3 bucks come out into what i call the "staging area" I decide to take the largest a main-frame 10 point with great mass. This big boy will score 135 which is large for the Va woods. Well after an hour he decides to come within range. 35 yards away i place the pin of my sight on the vitals and let the arrow fly. The buck kicks out his hind legs and i can see the arrow in his ribs. At first i thought " o yes a heart shot hes going down" When i got to trailing him an hour later i couldnt find but a single drop of blood. We marked it and came back the next morning and followed pin head amounts of blood for over a mile before it ran out. I never found him. I have never had such a sickening feeling in my stomach. I desperatly wanted to find him but i was so depressed that he was injured.

Present day.
Only me and another fellow hunt that land and he called me today to see if i had shot a big buck during archery season. I told him that i had and his reply was "welp i shot him on the last day" I couldnt have been more angry at the time. This guy is a complete A$$. I always call the owner of the land 3-4 days before i plan on hunting it so he can make arrangements and so that i wil be the only on hunting it. Well this guy has ruined my hunt many times but not calling the owner and just showing up. So i was very hot tempered. However i did my best to say congrats and i told him i would like to see the rack. He said taht i had put the arrow in teh boiler room it just didnt penetrate. After i thought about it i went from irate to calm b/c i knew that the animal was no longer suffering. Would you all be a little ticked or feel better knowing hes not suffering? That is a tough ol' buck I only wish that the fellow would have let him walk to grow some more for next season since it was the last day.


-John

This may sound crappy but you should not feel bad about about him getting the deer.

It is understandable to feel bad about losing a wounded animal. But I am sure this may be a learning experience for you. People learn more from failure than from success. Then again maybe you just had some bad luck on that deer.

You may have provided him with the only way he could get a deer. He probably found it dead already.

john:

What kind of equipment were you using that didn't penetrate enough? Bow? Arrow? Broadhead? Distance of the shot? Angle of the shot?

Sorry to hear about the experience, I think we all know how it is to hit an animal and not find it. It happens to the best of us. At least someone was fortunate enough to get the buck, but I know that is of little comfort because you wanted him.

There will be other seasons and other deer, just keep at it. Try to figure out what went wrong with the shot and why you didn't get enough penetration...if that is indeed the case. That is where your focus needs to be, so this doesn't happen again in the future for the same reasons.

Good luck man, hang in there!

To bad the deer was wounded...I'd feel bad about that too.
Rethink the pissed off part at the other guy though. Jealous maybe. Sounds like you might want to get to know this guy better. Work togather or make a schedule. There might be something you can learn from him.
What better time to fill your tag than the last day! Just does'nt get any better than that! Unless its the last second of the last day......

John17,

I agree with the others about the guy having every right to take the buck and that perhaps it wasa good thing if it was wounded...

What would really bug me is the thought that perhaps he did not take it, but found it dead, but I guess you will never know...

Regards

Pete

simple jealousy. work on self enlargement and try to erase that mean, hard spot in your heart. if you look at hunting as a competitive thing with other hunters, take up golf.

The hunting scenario, while not working out in your favor, is not all that bad. You did not put the animal down, it sounds as if the animal may have infact recovered if left alone. The animal was fair game, no real issue there.



You say the guy is an ass, and relate other incidents that affect that statement. That feeling is perhaps the basis for feeling that he "took" "your" animal? Try to find the middle ground here (with him), or find another area to hunt where you don't cross paths, if that is not possible. For me, being outdoors and hunting are an enjoyment, why let the experience be soured by personal conflict? I'd rather go buy cow brains at the market, before doing that.



What ever the post count says, on returning to the forum, it was my post 666. Just an interesting coincedence.

When someone kills a legal deer...I'm happy for them.





Jeff

Im not so upset about it as i was at first. I think i was a little mad b/c it would have been my biggest to date. However tehre will be more and probably better hunts to come. As for my set up: Its a dual cam PSE f-2. Similar to the nova. 300g. carbon force arrows and 85 g. thunderheads. The shot was slightly quartering away with some angle. I have since changed my setup and I am currently sighting in with my new Rocky Mountain ironheads. I am looking into a new faster and lighter bow for next season. I want more KE. As for the other hunter I have called him on the phone days prior to a hunt to let him know that i was coming and where i was hunting what truck im driving etc. I remember on instance clearly. After i had called him to tell him all the details he still showed up in the morning and hunted in the area i told him i was going to be hunting...all day. That made me mad b/c he knew i was coming that day and where. O well I apologize for stepping off ona bad note. I try to be as ethical a hunter as i can and totreat the land owners with respect b/c w/o them i would not have places to hunt.

The setup you are using should be fine. Thunderheads are very good heads, but I'd recommend perhaps a larger broadhead, although the 85 grain TH head has killed many a deer.

The bow and arrows should be fine too, although 300 grains is quite light unless you are NOT factoring in the 85 grain head, especially if you are shooting low poundage (which I'd assume you are since it is so light an arrow)

I shoot about 405 total arrow weight with 100 grain Muzzy 3 blades and A/C/C 3-60s out of a Hoyt Cybertech. I get about 265 fps at 65 lbs...not blazing but plenty of KE for whitetails.

PSE's site/brag board shows a nice 130ish buck taken with the bow you have, so I'm sure its plenty.

Something else may be the issue...arrow flight, bow tuning, etc that contributed to the lack of penetration...unless you are shooting less than 50lbs on that 35 yard shot. Even then, it should be enough to punch a lung.

Good luck man, hang tight and definitely try to find out why you didn't get enough penetration on this deer. As I said above, you don't want that to happen again.

As far as the other hunter, sounds like he isn't respecting your area, especially when you extend the courtesy to call him and let him know where you'll be and then he shows up RIGHT THERE anyway.

I wouldn't have the patience for that and would give the guy a piece of my mind and/or talk to the landowner.

Try having a civil conversation with the other hunter and arrange some kind of sectioning to the property if possible in the offseason. Offer to go out with him in the offseason and set "boundaries" so to speak. Of course, this is assuming you two have exclusive rights to the property and the landowner+family don't hunt there.

If all else fails, have a chat with the landowner explaining how you feel. If nothing comes about, time to move on to another pasture...no sense in dealing with the frustration.

I hunt a lot of property that I share with other hunters. Wish I had exclusive rights but I don't. I do what the land owner asks not any of the other hunters. I just do not have time to coordinate with everyone. If a guys is in a spot that I wanted to hunt I leave the area and expect him to do the same. As far as the deer goes I have to go along with the first poster. Sounds like he shot it fair and square and deserves the trophy.

I too think that if the deer TRULY WAS ONLY WOUNDED NON-LETHALY then it was fair, and since you have no way of knowing it wasn't, then gotta go with him having the right. Now I know that when an asshole gets anything good I begrudge them, because I hate them, but that is natural and it has to be supressed.

As to him purposely hunting the spot that you are hunting, that would piss me off, real bad. I would tell him straight,"look, I told you I am hunting this area, there is x amount of property here, you are going to have to move. And don't pull this again of purposely trying to f*&# up my hunt." I am so sick of rude hunters that I can hardly see straight.

Maybe there is recourse with the landowner, explain that the guy is always trying to ruin your hunts, maybe they can step in and tell him that he has to call first like you have politely done, and that he can't hunt the same section as you. if you have always been courteous to them I would think they'll help you out.

Red

Way to go John!

Hunting is competitive by nature and after all the hard work, scouting, practice, money spent it gets people in a tizzy quite often...I think I've heard more people with ill feelings over deer hunting/ deer land than any other type of hunting. It sounds like you are a pretty together fellow so don't let the guys encroachment get to you. You can only shoot a deer with that string and stick 30-40 yrds in most cases any way so maybe he'll push one over to you next year

Mike